From the Bathroom

As I sit here I can hear Harriet telling Papa:

"I can't pick it up. I have poo in my poo bag."
also....
"Stinky Butt Papa!"

Plus we just came from an hour long walk that was the result of Harriet telling us all to go to the front of the house. Before we knew it, we were being whisked away on a magical tour of our block. Some people might have completed the walk in oh...say...ten minutes. I bet those people, however, didn't:

*stop and pick, discuss, pull apart and distribute some of the little white flowers on a vine growing outside a nearby house

* walk with "one foot on road, one foot on footpath"

* wrap Doll and unwrap Doll and wrap her again and stop to pat her bottom to make her "happy and comfy like a baby" - repeat x27

* stop to tell the old Italian man down the road all about how Doll was sleeping in her stroller

* worked out how to use the stroller as a portable swing and then proceed to walk home pulling and swinging Doll simultaneously (it was quite a feat, and not something I would have imagined!)
* get to a trailer, stop, pat the side of it and proclaim "I never, never seen this strange car before" (she was happy once we discussed its similarity to a caravan)

* close an open gate...then proclaim she should open it for people to be able to get in and out of...and open it again

* knock on a wooden fence and say "Who's there?!" "Nana and Grandpa" "Oh let me come into your house...and this is Nana and Grandpa's house" (points to a particular square of conrete on the footpath)

* about five steps later she does the same thing, holds a similar conversation with herself except she points over the fence to some plants and says "That's Nana and Grandpa and Zoe and Priya over there Mamia"

We did finally make it home. And tragically my camera ran out of battery on the walk. But I have a couple of photos I can upload once I charge the battery up again. In the meantime the bath and toilet experience is coming to an end and I must resume my duties as dinner provider. More from the Land of Harry soon!

Ok, edited with psome photos from today back in here now. We had a 5.30am wake up call from Harriet and despite this foreboding start to the day we decided to venture into the city to go to Wildlife World (we had a free family pass - thanks Jen & Rod!). There was really very little difference in the experience from last time we went earlier in the year. Harriet spent most of her time rolling around on the floor on the upper level of the bird area. They have fake hollowed out trees there which entertained Harry more than just about anything (except the out of order photo booth and the lizards). Speaking of lizards, we walked in to WW and tried to point out to Harry some interesting insects and things but all she kept asking for was "Want to see the lizards running likecrazy!".

Actually I think if I were to design Harriet's ideal zoo, it would be comprised entirely of this large lizard (that she watched and ran up and down with and cried when other people blocked her running lane against the window), some fake hollow trees, and a couple of wombats who constantly had to poo.

A Festivus for the Rest of Us

Ok, first things first. We've been beset upon by the cold germs this week and Harry has had a rough couple of nights lately. It all started on the Saturday before Christmas when we were out all day and I realised that the throbbing in my head was quite sinister. Turns out I had myself a nasty sinus headache...and Harry must have been on her way to one herself. So it was nights full of coughing and tetchy days leading up to December 25th. However on Christmas Eve she turned a corner and didn't wake up until 9am! And even that was due to a wake-up call from Papa because Grandpa and Nana were due any minute.

And so ensued the mass unwrapping of 2007. Our great ambitions to have the doll bed unwrapped last were thwarted by the opening of Jan's pillow for said bed and of course once that was open the doll bed went into pole position. In fact Harriet disappeared into her room for quite a while with the bed in tow in order to make it nice and dark so that Doll could go to sleep.

We did end up cajoling her out into the open and besides the doll bed, the tea set was another big hit. Everyone was made a nice, hot cup of tea (Grandpa of course had sugar) and if it was too hot Harry even offered the extra service of blowing on it for you. In this photo Harriet's opening up her new doll that we bought for her. We had been searching for an anatomically correct doll like the one in the cafe that we regularly go to, but the specimen we received fell short of the mark. Harriet, of course, couldn't have cared less. New doll you say? Brilliant! Here she is undaunted by the mammoth box in front of her.

Once unwrapped, New Doll (also called 'Haircut Doll', 'William' and 'Your Doll') was given such tender loving care that you may have been mistaken for thinking it an actual infant. She lovingly dressed her in the dress Zoe (woman from down the road) had made for Harriet's Doll, brushed her hair with her own baby hair brush, laid her down in the new doll bed, and wrapped her up in the blanket. You can see by this photo, taken mere minutes after the opening of the box, just how quickly she was embraced into the Harriet Circle of Love.

Jan and Mike headed off to Newcastle for lunch and we drove over to Mal and Mark's new house for Christmas lunch. Harry was most taken with Bean's cradle and cot. Doll was lovingly laid to rest in each, as well as carefully blanketed in each reclined position.

Lunch was served and Harriet took her rightful position at the head of table. She ate her fill and then proudly proclaimed "I finished my food" as she slid off her chair and into the lounge room where multiple Kris Kringle presents lay in wait for toddler hands to unwrap them. Papa Jimbo dealt with the tears as Harriet was informed that not all items lying in wrapping paper were to be liberated by her.

As you can see it caused her a few tears. Considering that it was quite late in the afternoon, she was sick and she'd just been denied what she thought was her Christmas-given right, it was handled remarkably well. Not long after, when we did all adjourn to the lounge room for gift exhanging, I wondered where Harriet was.....

...I wandered back into the dining room to find her happily chowing down on a whole pile of cherries. On her own. Stockinged feet in the air. I asked her if she wanted to come into the lounge room and she said "No Mama. I am happy here with my cherries.". It was priceless!

And so she was. Here she is with one cherry stuffed in her cheeks like a cherry-loving squirrel.

Then today we went to Georgia's stepdad's place in Elizabeth Bay today to watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart race. Harriet finally met Toby and Sophie and was delighted to see Georgia and Nathan again - as were we!

In this photo you'd be forgiven for thinking she's just having a little crack-up over something or other. But in reality this is her yoga pose known as the 'bee'. She's actually closing her eyes and humming here, it's just that she loves doing it so much that she grins and squishes her eyes shut in a very non-yoga-like manner.

We hope that all of you have had a happy and safe Festivus period. Harriet has had an absolute ball and despite being overwhelmed, overtired and overstimulated, she has been a total delight and has taken it all in without so much as a raised eyebrow. Sorry for the abridged version of events, but this is a late night write-up and I am due to meet my pillow asap. And poor Judy is still waiting for the November Perth trip write-up, so I have to get on to it in the new year (how embarassing!).

Beware of Strange Men Bearing Gifts

There's obviously something about us as parents that screams "ASK FIRST!". We have had nearly every single person who knows us ask if we are 'doing' the Santa thing with Harriet. Considering that it is mostly a given in this society, it is truly lovely to have so many people respect our family and ask about these things beforehand - so thank you, sincerely.

The answer, of course, is not really. There were some great suggestions in a UP group I'm on about how to broach the topic and how to address complications that arise (like your child being the 'snitch' for other children, dealing with adults asking if Harry has been "good enough for Santa"...*sigh*). The one we liked the most and that we're going to run with is telling Harriet that people like to pretend that there is a man called Santa and he brings everyone presents. When you go out you see a man pretending to be Santa at Christmas time. And that if she asks if we believe in Santa we'll say that Santa isn't really for adults to believe in and that if she wants to then she can.

Sounds a little clinical perhaps but Harry has taken it all in her stride (as she does). At playgroup they had a big Christmas party with a 'Santa'. We were told to bring a book for a present to be given out and a plate of food for everyone to hoe into. Me being the stick-in-the-mud that I am, took some hummous and vegies and crackers. Have to say though that the food went down really well with the children, who all loved to use the dip without necessarily involving implements.

In preparation for the Santa exposure, I had been mentioning it casually for a couple of days prior that there would be a man dressed up as Santa at the playgroup party. She also knew that she'd be receiving a present - which she for some reason told me was a book when we were driving there. How on earth did she know that?

She was very brave and walked up to Santa on her own but at the last minute asked me to hold her hand for the last couple of steps. She then sat down and very properly and slowly unwrapped her present. You can see in the previous photo that she pulled one very long piece off in one go very carefully. And lo adn behold...Olivia! We have to thank Miss Linda for Harry's love of Olivia books and it has grown bigger and bigger. We sat down and read Olivia helps with Christmas twice straight away.

The other big event of the day was Harriet decided to climb up on this tunnel climbing frame completely on her own! Actually I did help her in one spot, but I was comfortable enough to leave her be in order to take the photos anyway. She of the tentative climbing! She still can't jump but she's working out other ways to get off the ground.

Overheard in the Playroom

Just now in high pitched, quiet volume voice to her figurines:

"What are you doing man?"
"Oh, I am driving to the shop"
"How are you going?"
"Oh good, I going to the doctor. I have a sore head. Need head surgery"
"Come on fairy girl, you give girl head surgery. Man is driving so he can't wash his hands."

Hee hee!

Silly Monkey

We were in a shop looking for some Christmas presents (and furtively purchasing something for her) when Harry yelled out to me: "Mama, come and play this dollhouse with you". I replied with "Sorry Harriet, I'm just looking over in this aisle right now, I'll be there in a second". To which she shot back without missing a beat, "No Mama, that not your job. Your job is to play with ME, Mama! Your job NOT looking over there!".

I was telling this story to someone (can't remember who) that asked me "So what did you do?". I could only surmise that they don't read this blog, because of course I laughed my head off adn went over to play on the dollhouse with her, because she was right!

We don't really have a huge Christmas list or anything for Harriet. What we already haev we think will be too much for her to tell you the truth. We decided against buying the Duplo because she already has some blocks (just not very good ones and since they're second hand they're a bit all over the place and you can't build much with them). We're now placing bets for which presents will be the big hits of the morning. I'm betting on the doll bed, and James is guessing the Lily May book.

Funny Saying #329

We came home from the shops the other day, and Harry was clearly quite pleased about that. She ran inside yelling "snuggle into house! snuggle into house!" and went and hugged the wall and snuggled up into it. Odd child. She's definitely her mother's daughter...

Funny Saying #328

"I don't like Poppy"
" Why?"
"When she runs she doesn't put her hands into fists"

Bwahahahaha!!!!

Read Me!

Ok, this is really exciting - the first chapter of Alfie Kohn's Unconditional Parenting book (yes, the one I blather on about) - is now available to read online. You can read a bit about why we do what we do here.

Thanks so much to Cathryn for posting about it on her blog!

If you are in Sydney we also know of a place that is selling the book for $7! Just ask me about it and I'll let you know.

Ok, back to your regular programming.

Walking Home

Harriet was falling asleep at home, so in order to keep her up for the remaining hour or two that we needed to make it to bedtime, I suggested that we go to the station to meet Papa off the train.

Doll was given much love while we waited for the train. She is wrapped here in "grandma blankie", the blanket that my Grandma gave her when she was born. It is her favourite blanket for Doll.

We met up with Papa. Actually Harry was halfway up the formidable set of stairs because she refused to wait for him at the base of the stairs on the 'home' side of the station. So she literally walked into him when she was just a few steps from the top. We made it to the top, then Harriet decided she wanted Doll to see the other side of the station. So, over we went, and down to the other side where the carpark lies. Here she is smiling dutifully for the camera with Doll in her stroller. You can see what I mean from the previous post about Doll being wrapped up with her hood on - she looks like a random blanket thrown haphazardly into the stroller


Then all of a sudden - WHOOSH! Doll had the countdown "Five... four... three... two...one... blast off!" and of into space she went. She didn't receive her spacesuit and oxygen until she was well into orbit, but this didn't seem to affect her in the slightest.



Just in case I didn't see Doll enjoying herself, Harry made sure of it.


Then it was time to put back in the stroller, only this time she needed the 'shadecloth'. The shadecloth is a recent addition to the stroller experience, an addition since spending time with Ruby and BabyTessa (yes, all one word) the other day. Tessa had a dark shade over her part of the Phil & Ted's pram and Harry was transfixed by this, and insisted Doll have one when she came home from that particular excursion.

We had asked her where we were heading to - and she pointed us in the right direction.


However we had only gone about three metres when Harriet stopped, insisting on knowing why the numbers on the car spaces had gaps in them. We had a little discussion about stencils which seemed to abate her worrisome focus and then we came unstuck as to where exactly Harry wanted to go.

At this stage Papa thought it best to show her exactly where we were. Here they're looking through the train station at our street. He discussed how we had two options - a shorter route involving walking back through where we came from, or a longer route back up along the river to our house.



Harriet, of course, decided on walking along the river. Which we did. And Harry delighted in walking in the grass, picking up seed pods and being gorgeous.


And um....this photo is here because she is beautiful. So sue me.

Funny Things

Today Harry was playing with Doll and out of the blue said "Want to go back to new house in Perth". I asked her why adn she said that she wanted to go back to Perth. I asked her if she wanted to go back for a specific reason - to do something or see someone? She said "Yeah, go back to Perth to see Grandad and Nana Lee. Miss them very much".

Awwww...!

In order to calm herself down in bed the other night James encouraged her to do a yoga breath. She did a yoga breath that had so much excitement and vigour that she launched herself up on her knees and then fell back down on to the bed with a bounce. Which caused the biggest giggles. And a LOT of repeat performances.

"You don't know why that tree is there" - just pointing at a random tree in Centennial Park

She is obssessed with having her dolls have 'hoods' on them. This means, in layman's terms, that she is pushing around what, for all intent and purposes, looks like a blanket in her doll stroller. In actual fact it is her Doll wrapped up entirely within a blanket. Quite a few old ladies stop us when she has this arrangement going on, and ask where her Doll is. Harry pats Doll's head endearingly and says "Doll sleeping. Needs the hood on". The old ladies look a little bewildered, and try to share a look with me. I just nod and smile, nod and smile.

One of her favourite games is having all of her figurine dolls (eg: her Little People and people from the tractor Jennie gave her last year and the dollhouse family) get sick and go to the doctor. The other day we were talking about how one of the dolls was sick. I asked where he was sick and Harriet said "In the head". I asked how we could help him and she said with authority, "Need head otoscope". Hmmm... once she invents one of those we're on easy street.

So it's coming up to Festivus and we're organising what we're getting for her. The doll indulgence is pretty high up for us. She seriously has some sort of doll/baby fetish. Everywhere we go she has to stop people and look at their babies. She also heads stright for the dolls in any shop (not the Barbie/Bratz/Polly Pocket types, the Baby Born, Little Mommy types). So we're getting her another doll, a doll bed, some books (of course - many, many books), tea set and maybe even some Duplo if we can find our way to it. It's a sickeningly feminine gift array, but she really does love her dolls.

You know, even with the blogging, I still haven't recorded even a tenth of all the things Harriet does on a daily basis to make me laugh and smile and love her to death. Just today I know I was sitting on the playroom floor laughing out loud at something she was talking about, but for the life of me I can't remember it. I just hate to think that I'm already forgetting all of these beautiful moments.

And this last photo - seriously, she was spinning around a pole and I just happened to catch this pose. Check it out! She looks like it should have "I like horse riding, candle lit dinners on teh beach..." next to it.

You Thought I Was Joking?

Just so that you know we aren't exaggerating, here is a TOTALLY exhausted Harriet yelling and mumbling her way through the Olivia's Missing Toy soliloquy.

I just uploaded some phone photos from a while ago too, and I used to have this one as my desktop. It's of her leaving Playgroup one day and although she has a brave face on here, it was a sad day. She does love those Playgroup dolls.

This one is very grimy...hmmm...probably due to one or two inquisitive toddler fingers. I just love this shot, such a shame about the smudginess. James thinks it should have the caption "How you doin'?".

And finally, when we were supposed to be meeting James in the city, Harriet decided that the best way to view the world was from below. So down went the bottom and there she sat. I snapped this in the hope it gave credence to my description of why we were running late to Jimbo.

Ok, Some Other Stuff

Now that I'm not committed to finishing off any photos, I can write a bit more.

So, the other day we went to see Miss Melinda at the hospital. Apparently they're keeping her there because she is too darn adorable to be released on to the public. Welll...that's why when you ask HER. Probably best you don't do that. The real reason is that she just loves the little jellies they serve at lunchtime. I know, I watched this fatty slurp one up in record time.

But no matter what the reason, Harriet really, really loves going to see her. "You don't know why". But the whole time we were downstairs waiting for the doctors to stop prodding Melinda, Harriet was repeating over and over, in some sort of daydreaming mantra - "Bee-lind-darr". Once or twice she said "Mee-lind-darr" too (I had only been explaining the difference to her all morning). Honestly, the girl's been on a television show and next thing everyone wants a piece of her.

It was absolutely The Harriet Show when we were there though. Everyone in the ward was watching her pirouette for her ballet dancing, do her yoga (her latest favourite pose is 'Bee'), run up and down the ward, point out the buildings outside the huge windows, and discuss poo (Harry's favourite subject). Luckily Melinda was able to walk out into the main visiting room so the poor other patients could have a reprieve. All jokes aside though, we hope you're feeling better soon Melinda! One day we'll catch up out of hospital and the girls can go crazy together (gawd, I shudder at the thought!).


We also went to Linda's 30th picnic the other weekend which was loads of fun (although only slightly stressful to get to - not directions or anything but...oh never mind, maybe when I can be bothered reliving it I'll write about it!). Harriet burst into tears when she saw Kicka's Movember contribution which was completely understandable. Truly, he turned around to say hello to the little girl and after talking about him and Linda all car ride, she promptly had the bottom lip quiver and burst into terrified tears!

Here she is diving headfirst into the maelstrom that is her doll stroller. She has her ladybird bag from Lisa (that I want! So cute), the dress from Clair that she insists on hanging over the back, the bag for our rug, her bag for 'shopping' at home and she's wearing my hat that I won from th equiz with Jacqui Norris - do any of the vets reading remember that quiz? I won a Fish Record voucher!

A little aside - the other day she wrote a shopping list when I was writing mine. I said "tomatoes", then she would say "I need tomatoes too" and write tomatoes - which would mean she'd scribble up and down in a little spot on her paper. It's actually a very close approximation of writing. Anyway, so she popped this into her 'shopping' bag on her stroller because we were taking it to the shops this time. Fast forward a couple of days and Harry opens up this bag to put her purse in there (with "very special balloon Mama, no-one can touch it cause it's special for Harryret, put it in the purse and no-one can see it". She opens the bag and sees her list. She pulls it out and slaps her hand over her mouth in surprise, exclaiming "Whoops! I forgot you put this in there! Silly! Take it out now to put in special balloon". It was just so adult, the 'forgot you put this' part. All of it was said as part of her running monologue to herself. And now that I've bored you silly with that little anecdote, let's move on, shall we?

We went in to see Papa in at work during the week. Harry has been seriously pining for James all this week. The other morning it was quite tragic. Everything was causing tears, Harriet was generally out of sorts and very irritable. She asked for boobia and during this time I discussed how there are lots of ways we can feel better when people are sad. We can get kisses and cuddles, think about happy things or we can talk about why we're sad. At this she pops off, looks up at me and in a very plaintive whine says a long, drawn out, very tragic, "Paaaapppppiiiiiaaaaa" with the saddest toddler eyes I have ever seen.

Poor sweet pea! I was so glad she told me! So I asked her if she was sad because we didn't get to see Papa that morning (we woke up late) and she nodded mournfully. I asked if calling him at work would make her happy - she practically grabbed the phone by Jedi mind powers from across the table, such was her enthusiasm for the suggestion. And after a phone call to Papa, all was right with the world and the afternoon went swimingly. Sometimes people are way too quick to forget that these are little people with quite complex emotions that they don't really have a grasp on. Give them a bit of respect and they will always respond.

Other excitement in the house is afoot - the Christmas tree is up! WHAT?! I can hear many of you exclaim. Yes, yes, we are not the most festive folk it is true. However last Christmas James made the commitment that he would engage in the whole Christmas 'thing' (to a point of course - having a nativity scene in lights across the front of the house along with bobbing head reindeer alongside wasn't part of the equation...it WAS apparently in it for the house two streets up from us though).

Grandpa and Nana were here to help put the tree up, much to the excitement of Harry, who was actually much more taken with the round of applause that we gave at the end of the procedure. She asked us to repeat it...oooh, about four times I think wasn't it Jan? And in her bath that night she was found to be repeating the clapping scene with much excitement on her own.

Ok, I am working my way backwards and am getting on to the Perth photos soon. Never fear, it will be posted here!

So, So, Far Behind

Oh man, I am so far behind in this blog. There has been so much happening in the life and developmental times of Miss Harriet, but I've been too busy catching up on some work at night to come in here and write about it.

She has a million 'new' things. Let me see, I'll try to remember a couple of them:

* Oh my god, have I not written about the "You don't know why" yet? If she doesn't understand something she doesn't ask "Why?", it is expressed as "You don't know why". Which is a lot easier to take than incessant whys, and it is said in such a particularly proper tone that is all too adorable.


* "THAT'S MY TOY!" - Not her's per se, but Olivia's. There is a book called Olivia and the Missing Toy. In it there is a page where Olivia, in very big letters, yells out a monologue about how upset she is that she has lost her toy. Harriet has this monologue down word-perfect (this only takes one read of a book, you can ask Nana and Grandpa about that one!). The problem is that she loves to yell it out just as loudly as Olivia does. And that is very loudly indeed. She has asked to yell this out on train carriages, in cafes, bookstores and, best of all, just the other day, in a hospital ward where we were meeting the lovely Melinda (or Bee-lindar as Harry calls her for some mysterious reason). It was so loud when she started to yell it in the hospital that out of pure shock and instinctive reaction I slammed my hand over her mouth - it shocked the daylights out of her! Poor poppet, I did have to calm her down and explain why such loud shouting isn't entirely appropriate in the hospital.


* Pronouns are now on about a 50/50 correct state. It is of course more difficult this way as well. For example when a fractious toddler says "You help me with this", before you do anything you clarify who is 'you' in that scenario, because god forbid that you assist Harry when she wants to help you instead.

I do have a lot more to write but it is late and I just wanted to remind everyone that we're all still alive here after being on the west coast. Just very, very busy.